I am going to come right out and say it. Recreational drugs (unless taken to enhance performance) shouldn’t trigger a ‘positive’ drug test.

There are endless examples of sportspeople testing positive to non performance-enhancing (“NPE”) drugs and losing gold medals (the Canadian snowboarder), suffering two year bans (Wendell Sailor) and enduring the stigma of testing ‘positive’ (Matt Stevens).

At no stage do I advocate taking drugs but why are sportspeople held to a different standard than lawyers, doctors, politicians or the person looking after your children in the local daycare centre? Surely these occupations have more of an impact on life than a guy who catches balls and runs into other guys for a living. Why should my livelihood be threatened and not the school bus driver who goes on a bender every Saturday night?

While we are at it – why are alcohol and tobacco ok and other drugs are not?

I’m not going to check the stats – maybe interested readers can write in – but I’ll bet my pension that when you count the reasons for deaths, violence and visits to the hospital, alcohol and tobacco will feature in the top five. And yet alcohol (and even abuse of alcohol) is an accepted part of the rugby culture. Mad Monday’s, Kangaroo court sessions, “bonding” nights. Is it because alcohol is not a recognised performance enhancer? Or is it because there is a wider acceptance that some drugs are ok and others are not?

"Marijuana doesn’t really have any performance enhancing qualities"

We are all adults here. Everyone makes a choice about what they put into their body. Whether it is junk food or drugs or a vegan diet – we know there will be consequences. As I said in Part 1 performance enhancing drugs should carry an immediate lifetime ban (I don’t really want to get into what is ‘performance enhancing’ but let’s assume steroids etc) but recreational drugs should not even be tested for out of competition. Even in-competition, a drug like marijuana doesn’t really have any performance enhancing qualities. I have a huge amount of sympathy for the Canadian snowboarder who lost his gold medal because of a positive marijuana test. He’s a bloody snowboarder!

Imagine this scenario. Usain Bolt, the fastest man in history, tests positive! But hang on – it is for marijuana. Would anyone really care? Would it reduce his performance in the minds of people watching athletics? I say no. The man is 22 years old and has had a massive year. Think of the training he has done. The sacrifices he has made to get where he is. If he wants to let off steam by taking drugs – that is his decision. What about that photo that looks like Michael Phelps with a bong? Does that diminish his performance in your eyes? If you said yes... get over yourself.

Sportspeople have the right, along with everyone else, to make their own decisions. If it has consequences for their health – how is that anybody else’s problem? Stop the holier than thou charade and get rid of testing for stuff that doesn’t augment performance.

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